Miguel Cotto won't be boxed in with Roach in his corner

There was pause at the end of the line, followed by a halting laugh. Legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach has Parkinson's disease but remains sharp enough to know when he is getting played.

"Who is this, really?" Roach said.

Cotto finally was able to connect with Roach and make him believe he wasn't pulling a prank.

The next proposition was making Roach believe in him, period.

Cotto needed a new trainer, and they don't get any better than Roach. The last times their crossed paths with Cotto in the ring was in November 2009, when Roach's fighter, Manny Pacquiao, had beaten down Cotto with a 12th-round TKO in Las Vegas. Nobody left the ring on amicable terms.

Roach still trains Pacquiao, but first, he will be in Cotto's corner when he faces Delvin Rodriguez in a scheduled 12-round junior-middleweight bout at the Amway Center on Saturday night. The fight will be televised live by HBO.

Cotto (37-4, 30 KOs) is at a career crossroads, having lost his last two fights. It's been almost a year since he's been in the ring officially, losing to Austin Trout in December 2012. The soul searching led him to Roach after Cotto severed ties with Pedro Diaz, who had trained Cotto for his last three fights.

"I need a person who can see what I can't see in the ring," Cotto said Thursday after a news conference hyping the fight with Rodriguez. "Some people can tell me what I have to do in the most correct way. That was Freddie."

Freddie didn't see a fighter who was shot. He simply saw a fighter who left a bunch of tools at home — combinations, left hook to the body, the type of things that made Cotto a three-time world champion. Against Trout, he was simply looking for the one-and-done shot to the head.

"He should have beat Trout, he just didn't let his hands go," Roach said. "He wasn't using his combinations. One punch at a time is no way to fight. That's all he was prepared for. He has great hand speed and his combinations are great. When he puts those together I think he is unbeatable."

Roach and Cotto went to work during training camp in Big Bear, Calif. The daily routine included three hours of strength and conditioning from 5 to 8 a.m., followed by lunch and a quick rest, and then ring work from 2 to 4 p.m.

Result: Cotto is cut and had no problem making weight, coming in 21/2 pounds under weight.

Rodriguez (28-6-3, 16 KOs) is the perennial talented but relatively safe opponent who can help Cotto regain his star power. Rodriguez has been on big stages before, including two world title fights and numerous ESPN appearances, but this is his most stringent test.

And it will come before a capacity crowd at the Amway Center, the majority of them Puerto Ricans screaming for Cotto, their native son.

"They all are going to be making a lot of noise," he said. "Trust me, when you're in that ring you don't hear who is yelling Cotto or anything else. It's just going to motivate me more."

The motivational push for Cotto is more significant, of course. A victory puts him back in the pay-per-view market, with the possibilities including a fight with Canelo Alvarez or a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

"People can say whatever they want," Cotto said. "I stay focused on Delvin. That's the upcoming fight next Saturday. After that we can see about it and talk about the rest."